The weather is becoming cold, so our drinks get hot. Break out the crock pot and get to mixing drinks that will warm the hearts and souls of friends and family.

On the Speaking Easy Podcast, you’ve heard us talk about ways of modifying your drinks in ways that you may have tinkered around with in the past–shaken or stirred, shaking with or without ice, adding egg white, adding all kinds of bitters, infusions, and even how to make Jägermeister palatable*. But on this week’s episode of the podcast, we talk more in depth about one of the most tried and true ways to increase your cocktail repetoire–by heating them up.

Now, it should be noted that not all warm or hot drinks are created equal. Certain ingredients, such as Fernet Branca, are made to be served cold. But overall, we encourage you to branch out and even try some of your favorite classics warm.

With hot drinks, you’re taking the one factor of making drinks that is most often assumed–its temperature–and making the intention not to refresh the palette, but to physically warm the body. In many ways, that is, the history of warm drinks would lead you to believe that their design is more functional than aesthetic, and in that, you’d be part right. but there can be a beauty in that utilitarian nature as well.

Alex has come a long was since his first cocktail (“Magic Fanta,” orange soda and orange vodka, don’t mess) back at Indiana University. When not mixing up cocktails for friends, he enjoys hiking, adventures in sandwiches, and blues music. His epitaph will read “In Search of the Perfect Lemon.”